


water

by suzukiblu



Series: push and pull [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Water Tribe Zuko (Avatar), Waterbender!Zuko, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28340430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu
Summary: ". . . well. That's new," Lu Ten says thoughtfully, looking at the towering pillar of near-blinding light taking up half the southern sky.
Relationships: Katara & Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Yue/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: push and pull [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830643
Comments: 39
Kudos: 383





	water

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry in advance for how much this fic jumps around, but I originally wrote it as a series of request-responses soooo it’s a bit all over the place as a result, haha. Not that the previous parts were not _also_ a bit all over the place, I just feel like it’s more obvious now that we’re firmly in canon-retelling territory. 
> 
> Also, some of this is very old, and some of it is very new. Hopefully the difference there is not too jarring, but I did my best with it.

". . . well. That's new," Lu Ten says thoughtfully, looking at the towering pillar of near-blinding light taking up half the southern sky. 

"What's new?" Azula asks from behind him, sounding bored. Lu Ten would lay even money that she's only paying attention to her dartboard and hasn't even turned to look.

"Spirit stuff, I think," he replies, glancing back towards the body of the ship and shouting up towards it: "Helmsman! Adjust bearings; we're checking that out!"

"Whatever," Azula sighs over the thunk of a shuriken hitting cork and penetrating straight through into the hull. For the ship's sake, Lu Ten hopes there'll be something interesting at the source of the light.

And coming down here was supposed to be a _break_. 

Well, to be fair, Azula does get bored pretty easily. 

.

.

.

When Lu Ten comes back onboard with an airbender in chains, he's as surprised as anyone. Azula's even startled enough that she nearly misses the bullseye on her dartboard.

"Who is _that_?" she asks in bemusement.

"Uh . . . I think he's the Avatar," Lu Ten replies, more than a little confused as he watches the men take the kid down to the cells.

"The Avatar is dead," Azula says automatically, staring after the kid just the same. Of course, the _airbenders_ are all supposed to be dead, too, which puts a bit of a chink in that argument.

"Yeahhh, I guess not," Lu Ten says, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly and then eyeing the weird-looking staff he's holding. "Honestly? I don't know if Grandfather's gonna be happy with us or cosmically _pissed_."

"Hn," Azula answers distractedly, still staring after the boy they took away. He was so small, just a kid looking nervous and a little worried.

So . . . unexpected.

"Hn," she says again, and the ship pulls out and then everything's boring again, because even if this little shrimp is the Avatar he came so quickly and quietly that it's not like—

Then a sky bison lands on the deck and a bunch of Water Tribe kids tumble off its back, and Azula's toes _curl_. 

.

.

.

The Fire Nation ship is a chaotic mess, which Lanook is sort of proud of them for managing to make happen, but the amount of fire on deck is _really concerning_. Normally he doesn't see fire as a particularly dangerous thing, but it definitely is right now. 

There's a lot going on, but the prince is obviously going to be the most important one to deal with. He's in charge, and he's the one with the intimidating blue-hot fire, and he's—

Something whistles in the air, and instinct is the only thing that keeps Lanook from getting a knife in the neck. He whips towards the direction it came from and sees a bored-looking girl in red armor and long, loose sleeves. She's coldly beautiful and there's a gold ornament in her topknot. 

"Hm," she says, tilting her head. 

"A little help here, Azula?!" the prince yells over at her. She rolls her eyes. 

Then she suddenly has a lot more knives in her hands, so that's . . . worrying. Her nails are painted black and filed needle-sharp. Lanook hefts his club warily, not sure what to expect, and Azula gives him that same bored look, then whips a handful of knives at him. Lanook just barely manages to knock them out of the air before they end up in his chest, and she lunges forward across the deck and tries to slit his throat with her remaining knives. Lanook stumbles back with a yelp, and she slashes at him again and again, faster than maybe anyone else he's ever sparred with, and he has no _idea_ how he's fast enough to dodge her. 

Adrenaline. He's blaming adrenaline. 

The third time he manages not to get stabbed, Azula's bored expression shifts, and her eyes flicker with interest. 

Then she spins around and kicks his war club out of his hands. It goes clattering across the deck, and she lunges forward bristling with blades. 

Lanook grabs a fistful of ice off the deck and smashes it into her knives, which is the only reason she doesn't kill him. 

Her eyes flicker with interest again. 

Lanook leaps for his club. Azula leaps at him. They crash into each other, her knives scraping brutally along his iced-up war club. 

"Crap!" he says. She smirks at him. 

"Try harder, Water Tribe," she says. 

Lanook knees her in the gut and throws her off him. She lands in a roll and pulls out an even bigger set of knives. He was expecting fire, not knives, but he's still pretty sure he's going to die. 

"Lanook!" he hears Katara shout, and a massive blast of icy wind tears across the deck. He freezes himself to the deck just in time, but Azula gets blasted back into the rail. Lanook takes the opportunity to run for it. Running for it is definitely the thing to do. 

Something impacts against his shoulder, but he doesn't have time to check what. He bolts straight to Appa and the others, and Katara and Tuikka drag him into the saddle as Aang shouts, "Appa, yip-yip!" 

They take off, and Lanook glances back towards the mess of the deck. It's covered in ice and water and knocked-over firebenders, and Azula's standing right in the middle of it, watching them fly away with glittering eyes. 

"Yikes," Tuikka says, and pulls a vicious red-hilted knife out of the torn shoulder of Lanook’s parka, checking the blade for blood. "You okay?" 

". . . yeah," Lanook replies slowly, and takes the knife from him. "I'm okay." 

Azula keeps watching them fly away. 

.

.

.

“What happened to your ship?” Captain Zhao asks from the dock, and Lu Ten just sighs in aggravation as Azula smirks behind one of her long, loose sleeves.

“Don’t ask, Captain,” he answers gloomily, trudging past the man. Beaten up by a twelve year-old. He’s _never_ living this down.

“It’s ‘Commander’ now, Prince Lu Ten,” Zhao corrects as he falls into step behind him—corrects politely and with due deference, but Lu Ten can still hear the smug pride in his voice. Well, he doesn’t blame him, _he’d_ be smug if he were climbing the ranks that fast too. Every time they run into Zhao the man seems to be better off than before. “Did you have trouble with the weather?” 

“No, it was fine,” Lu Ten replies, even more glum. At his side, Azula smirks behind her sleeve again, her eyes alight in a way he doesn’t think he’s ever seen them—once, maybe, that time Uncle sparred with her and ended up throwing her halfway across the training ground. She broke her arm.

She also scored Uncle’s chest with her dao blades, a feat that Lu Ten has yet to see duplicated, and he knows Uncle too well to think it was because Azula is his daughter.

At least, not in the sense that he went any easier on her than he would’ve a stranger.

“You look tired, my prince. If I can offer my ship’s hospitality while yours is repaired, I believe my cook just purchased a fresh crate of ginseng tea fresh from the Fire Nation,” Zhao suggests, and the tension instantly melts out of Lu Ten’s shoulders at the thought. The only tea he’s had in _weeks_ has been the pathetic, dried-up remnants of the Earth Kingdom blend Lieutenant Jee had found stuffed away in the back of the hold, and he’ll be damned if he ever admits to it aloud but he just can’t wind down without the stuff.

“Let’s do that, yeah,” he says slightly more fervently than he means to, and Azula rolls her eyes. “I need to sit down and write the report up anyway.”

“Report, Prince Lu Ten?” Zhao asks curiously as he leads them further down the dock, and Azula fairly _ripples_ with pleasure. Lu Ten, as the sole representative of the sane branch of the family, just sighs. 

“Well,” he says, “believe it or not, but as it turns out, there really _is_ an Avatar.”

.

.

.

“Um,” Lanook says as the hood comes off, staring at the pretty girls with white faces and red lips standing in front of them, and, “No _way_!” Tuikka squawks. Something about them is familiar, Lanook thinks, but not really. They look a little bit like the woman in green he dreamed of last night, but maybe that’s just because they’re girls and the only people around who _are_ wearing green; he doesn’t really remember the dream very well.

. . . they’re all really pretty, though. He’s pretty sure he’s never actually _seen_ this many girls before, and definitely never this many girls their _age_.

“Um,” he manages again as the one with the shortest hair and the most elaborate headpiece steps forward, smirking defiantly with her hands on her hips. Her . . . hips. Her really, really _nice_ . . . okay, well, her armor’s definitely not as form-fitting as Princess Azula’s and her hair’s not as dark and sleek, but she moves with such grace in it and the way her short, rough warrior-hair frames the pretty line of her face is _really_ —

“You gonna be alright there, outsider?” one of the closer girls asks dryly, and he squeaks in surprise and yanks his eyes away from them _quickly_ , blushing all the way down his neck. Tuikka, oblivious, keeps arguing with the leader. Katara, not at _all_ oblivious, starts laughing at him, and Lanook scowls at her in embarrassment. He’d like to see _her_ deal with being tied up and surrounded by a bunch of cute guys all at—

. . . actually, never mind that. He’ll take the laughing.

.

.

.

“Strength and honor,” Tuikka says in satisfaction, drawing himself up to his full height and planting his hands on his hips, and Aang laughs as he passes the open dojo door. Lanook just blushes harder behind the facepaint, keeping a hand over his mouth—silk is for strength, gold is for honor, yeah yeah he _gets_ it. He just doesn’t get what the _lipstick_ represents.

“C’mon, champ, lemme at ‘em,” the same Kyoshi Warrior who’d teased him when he was still tied up says, grinning faintly and wagging the little pot of slick ruby-red paint in her hands—Koko, that’s her name. Lanook tries to get up the willpower to scowl but really can’t, and finally just gives in and lowers his hand. Koko grins wickedly and immediately swoops in with the brush, and it’s about all he can do not to die of embarrassment as she leans in way, way too close to paint his lips. He keeps his eyes on the ceiling, because it’s at least a little less flustering.

Sort of.

Okay, fine, so _nothing_ can be less flustering when there’s a pretty girl in close enough that he can feel her _breathe_ against him and dragging soft, wet bristles over his lips like—

“There we go,” Koko says with another grin, stepping back, and Lanook wishes _fervently_ to sink into the floor and disappear.

Right up until Koko and Suki start teaching them their moves, at least.

.

.

.

“And then there was the time with Kuzon and the hogmonkey—” Aang remembers gleefully, and Bumi bursts into cackling laughter, pounding a fist against the table.

“And the _messenger_ snail! Can’t forget the messenger snail!” he crows.

“Oh _man_ , you’re right, I can’t believe I did!” Aang exclaims, smacking himself in the side of the head. “Hey! You know, we should see if we can train up another one of those—” 

“Aang, my boy, I am the _King_. We already have forty.”

_“Really?!”_

Tuikka just eyes the pair of them from the other side of the table, nibbling at another chunk of slightly Katara-flavored candy and already planning the fastest route out of this crazy city.

. . . and also how to explain to Katara and Lanook who ate all the rock candy while they were gone.

.

.

.

“You know, is it just me or is this is a _lot_ easier in the snow?” Lanook asks with a disgruntled frown, spitting leaves out of his mouth and not for the first time cursing all this crinkly stuff all over the ground. He knows how to walk silently on snow, that’s _easy_ , but sticks and leaves and grass and _rocks_ . . . geez, it’s like trying to get across thin ice without it cracking. 

Harder, actually, since he can’t bend sticks and grass. 

“Shhhh! You’ll scare it off!” Tuikka hisses, nearly clubbing him with his boomerang as he draws it back to throw. Unfortunately, the badger-rabbit they’ve been creeping up on’s heard one or the other of them and is already bolting. “Aw, _man_!”

“Looks like it’s lichi nuts for dinner again,” Lanook says glumly, resting his chin in his hand and giving the empty meadow a baleful look.

This is _totally_ easier in the snow.

“Screw that, if I have to eat lichi nuts one more night I’m eating _Appa_ ,” Tuikka swears, struggling his way up out of the bush they’ve been hiding in and managing to take half its leaves with him. “He’s a big guy, he’s got six legs, he can spare one.”

Lanook would protest, but considering he’s eaten enough vegetables to grow a garden in his gut this week the idea doesn’t actually sound as crazy as it could. 

He’s pretty sure Aang wouldn’t be into it, though.

.

.

.

Haru won’t stop mooning at Katara and Tuikka wants to knock his block off and Lanook wants to freeze his sensitive pretty-boy eyes _shut_ , and maybe his mouth too if he says one more hard-luck thing about how much he misses his dad and how important his bending is to him. Or maybe he’ll just help Tuikka with the knocking his block off angle. Whichever’s easier at the time.

Tuikka doesn’t like Haru because of how Haru looks at Katara; Lanook doesn’t like Haru because of how Haru looks at Katara and how he talks about his bending. It’s _weird_ , he wants to say, except Katara’s eyes light up with delight and relief every time Haru says something about how important it is, how much it means, how _whatever_ it is.

Lanook doesn’t understand, and doesn’t like not understanding. Katara’s supposed to look at _him_ like that— _he’s_ the one she learned from and practices with and shows every new trick she figures out to, _he’s_ her brother and _he’s_ a waterbender just like her. What could an earthbender know that he doesn’t know? 

Except for how to make Katara’s eyes light up like that when he talks about his bending. He can’t do that.

So why can Haru? What’s wrong with him, what’s wrong with the way _he_ bends, why don’t _his_ feelings about bending make Katara that happy?

. . . maybe because he doesn’t really have feelings about bending, Lanook admits somewhere deep inside, trying not to look at anyone as Katara and Haru chatter on excitedly over dinner, trying not to let his thoughts show. Maybe because _his_ eyes don’t light up when other people tell him _their_ feelings about it.

It’s not fair, he thinks, eyes fixed on his food as he listens to the high, happy pitch of their voices and Aang’s occasional piping-in. He’s not even sure where the thought comes from, but it’s there, suddenly, it’s there and it’s _strong_ and then it’s all he can think, all he can think is _what’s wrong with me why don’t I FEEL that what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with me what’s WRONG with—_

Tuikka’s hand grips the back of his wrist underneath the table, and he doesn’t say anything and Lanook doesn’t say anything either, Lanook doesn’t even _look_ at him, but for a moment longer he can keep breathing.

It’s not good enough, but it’s enough.

.

.

.

Haru feels guilty about the necklace. Katara’s eyes were so stricken when she realized she’d lost it, and the Avatar looked even more hurt and her brothers, they just looked _angry_ , for that first instant they were both _furious_ —but then the pale one was grabbing Katara and pulling her into his chest and she’d cried and cried and _clung_ to him and Haru wanted . . . Haru wanted . . . it was a bad thing, but Haru wanted to be the one she wanted to cry on and cling to.

But his dad told him that was normal when he admitted it to him, so he forgave himself for it.

Right now, he’s forgiving himself for it.

“Where is the Avatar?” the Fire Nation soldier asks, eyes narrowed and hands sparking, and Haru digs his feet into the ground and _feels_ the earth through them.

“You’re not finding out here,” he says, and the ground _trembles_ between them.

.

.

.

Lanook wakes up with a start in Appa’s saddle and bites down _hard_ on the back of his wrist to muffle the quiet reflexive cry, eyes wide. 

“You okay?” he hears a voice ask from a little ways away, and it takes him a moment to recognize Aang beside him. For some reason he saw . . . someone else, he thinks, when he first looked towards the sound of his voice. He looked like the red man for a moment, tall and stately and solemn. But that doesn’t make any sense.

“M’fine,” he rasps sleepily, voice kept low out of years of habit. He doesn’t like to wake Tuikka and Katara when he has the bad dreams. Katara sleeps through most of them, at least, but Tuikka hardly ever does. He guesses he’s lucky tonight, since Tuikka’s up front holding Appa’s reins and shouldn’t be able to hear as long as they keep their voices down—he doesn’t want to worry him. They have enough stuff to worry about right now. 

“Did you have a bad dream?” Aang asks with a worried little frown, and Lanook nods.

“It happens,” he murmurs, folding his arms on the side of Appa’s saddle and resting his chin on them. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Monk Gyatso always told me to tell him when I had a bad dream, and then it wouldn’t have any power over me because he’d know about it too and could help me chase it off when I went back to sleep!” Aang tells him helpfully, grinning wide and cheerful.

“I don’t think it works like that,” Lanook who dreamed of black snow the day before his mother died says.

“Well, it might. You wanna try?” Aang asks, and Lanook almost does want to but—

_burning burning burning everything was BURNING and the red man was trying to talk but he couldn’t hear him, not over the burning, the forest was all BURNING_

—no, he really doesn’t.

“It’s okay. I’ll tell Tuikka,” he lies, and curls back up and closes his eyes.

“Oh. Okay,” Aang says, his voice a little hesitant and maybe even a little hurt at the abrupt end to their conversation, and Lanook gets the feeling he’s about to say more but really, really hopes he won’t. He likes the kid, he does, but . . . well, that’s kind of why he _doesn’t_ want to tell him things like _“wherever we end up landing tomorrow, everything there is going to be dead.”_

.

.

.

"Ah," Lanook says, leaning towards the door and staring at the massive, ugly-looking spirit looming in front of Aang and _destroying_. 

"Aang . . ." Katara moans softly, her fingers gripping the wood of the doorframe and eyes squeezing shut.

"C'mon, we've gotta _help_ him!" Tuikka yells, grabbing for his boomerang.

"I don't think . . ." Lanook starts distantly, then trails off as the spirit's head turns and it . . . and he . . . he was thinking something, wasn't he . . . ?

"Lanook? _Lanook!_ " Katara shouts, grabbing at his sleeve and trying to yank him back. Tuikka curses in alarm and drops his boomerang, grabbing Lanook's other arm and wrestling him back into the building.

"Snap out of it!" he shouts, but Lanook just keeps staring at the spirit and the spirit keeps staring at them and then _leaps_ and Katara shrieks and Aang is yelling something and then everything is suddenly—

_gone_

Or at least, one thing is.

_"LANOOK!"_

.

.

.

The chamber doors blast open in a rush of wind and fury and this time Lanook _definitely_ sees the red man, fierce and dangerous and surrounded by fire and looking nothing like he’s ever looked in any of Lanook’s dreams, not _either_ face of him. 

But it’s still him. It’s the red man, and Lanook’s awake. He _knows_ he’s awake.

He knows he’s awake because when he had the dream, he woke up before he could see what had blasted through the doors.

.

.

.

Zhao’s day takes a decided turn for the worse when Avatar Roku bursts out of the temple’s inner chamber, bright and brilliant and throwing back the combined onslaught of every single one of his soldiers’ fire.

“Well, hot damn,” Prince Lu Ten says, raising his eyebrows, and Princess Azula _grins_. “So that’s an Avatar.”

And then things _really_ go to shit, because they both _charge_.

Zhao is not pleased, and, he suspects, the Fire Lord won’t be either. There’s only one thing to do when the youngest prince and the princess look so damn excited at the same time, though:

_“RETREAT!”_

.

.

.

Long after they’ve escaped the collapsing temple, Lanook still won’t stop shaking. Tuikka pretends not to notice and Katara keeps a grip on his sleeve and Momo curls up around his shoulders and Aang flies Appa slowly and doesn’t make any sharp turns or sudden dives, but Lanook still won’t stop shaking.

And won’t stop.

And won’t stop.

And won’t _stop_ —

“What?! What _is_ it?!” Tuikka finally yells, because he doesn’t understand, if anyone should be shaking it’s Aang who just tore down a freaking temple with his bare hands, who just got told he’s only got until the end of the summer to save the world. Lanook jerks guiltily, probably thinking the same thing, and presses back into the side of Appa’s saddle, just shaking his head.

“It’s. It’s nothing,” he manages hoarsely, face still six degrees paler than usual. Tuikka has never heard such dragonhorseshit in his _life_

“Lanook,” he growls, and the other squeezes his eyes shut.

“It’s nothing,” he rasps, and hides his face, and Tuikka gives up in frustration—fine, then, see if he cares, his stupid little brother can be as stupid as he wants. He’ll get it out of him sooner or later.

Lanook goes to sleep. They all do, eventually.

In the morning, Lanook’s smile is a little nervous but still strong and he’s asking Aang how far away Crescent Island is. Asking him the exact same way he asked him _yesterday_ morning, when they were still on their way to it.

In sixteen years, Tuikka’s maybe never been so terrified as he is when he realizes Lanook is serious. 

.

.

.

“What did you dream about last night?” Katara asks finally, when they all calm down enough to stop freaking out _too_ loudly, although the way she grips Lanook’s wrists is much, much too tight for the soothing tone she tries to affect.

“Nothing,” Lanook says, frowning in confusion, then frowning more deeply and shaking his head as if clearing it. “I mean—the red man was there, he was saying something. But it was just him, nothing was going on or anything.”

“What did he say, Lanook?” Katara asks gently, giving his wrists another squeeze. “Do you remember?” Lanook just shakes his head helplessly, returning the squeeze to reassure her. Tuikka stabs his knife into Appa’s saddle and glares at Aang, who just looks upset and guilty. Which is only right, Tuikka thinks, because all he can think is _somehow, this was YOU_.

“I’m sorry,” Lanook says, like it’s _his_ fault, and for the first time Tuikka regrets ever finding Aang—their village being threatened was one thing, Hei Bai was one thing, all these crazy Fire Nation types are one thing, but _nothing_ can make the lost, guilt-stricken, and _frightened_ look on Lanook’s face worth it.

He doesn’t say anything, though, because he knows that’ll just make it worse.

.

.

.

Lanook dreams more these days. Back home, if he dreamed more than once a month it was a surprise—which was why Tuikka was so confused when the month prior to Aang falling out of the ice Lanook woke up with a stifled little gasp every _night_ , breathing all wrong for a waterbender. 

Just right for an airbender, as it turned out.

But yeah, so Lanook dreams more these days. Tuikka guesses it’s because of all the spirits they’re running into and the whole, you know, Aang technically _being_ a spirit thing; it’s making him more sensitive or something. Or maybe it’s just that suddenly their lives are one long string of near-death experiences, because those always made Lanook pretty sensitive too. Or . . . well, he doesn’t really know. If he thought about it there’s got to be at least ten things he could blame it on, but it doesn’t actually matter—Lanook’s always had the dreams, and sometimes he has more and sometimes he has less and sometimes he wakes up smiling and sometimes he wakes up in tears and always, Tuikka’s the one reaching out in the middle of the night to pull him in close to comfort. 

Lanook never asks for it. Sometimes he’s too proud, sometimes he doesn’t think he deserves it over something he’s always had to deal with, and sometimes he’s just Lanook _(when he was very, very little, Gran-Gran took Tuikka aside once and told him, “he is Pull, but you are Push”, and Tuikka has never forgotten it)_. Tuikka’s good at Lanook, though, better than _Lanook_ is at Lanook, so he reaches out and drags him in and Lanook lets him.

And these days it’s not as private as it used to be when they were deep asleep in opposite corners of the hut—these days they all sleep closer and lighter, and when Lanook jerks awake in Appa’s saddle or his bedroll or the tent, well, it’s hard not to notice. So on the bad nights, Tuikka reaches out and Katara crawls in and they end up a pile like when they were little kids, and Lanook pretends he’s not shaking and they let him pretend and Momo curls up on Lanook’s head and when Aang’s not flying Appa Katara usually pulls him in too and sometimes Appa even curls up around them and it’s actually . . . kind of ridiculous, to be honest, and Tuikka’s pretty sure they _look_ ridiculous when they do it but . . .

Well. When they do it, Lanook can go back to sleep and _not_ have nightmares, so really, Tuikka doesn’t give a damn.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr!](http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/)


End file.
